Glassy Mars

[Basil]

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap071218.html

 

Nearly-pure silica soil found on Mars. Useful material, silica.

 

If that were all, I wouldn't have bothered posting this...

 

But it's not all!

 

Your scientist friends from the blue water planet say that such soil on Earth is usually created by either volcanic steam or a hot spring.

 

More evidence for a wet past for Mars.

 

 

 

 

Though if there were hot springs, does this mean the Martians had saunas? With hawt alien sauna babes?

[Zeropoint]

Re: Glassy Mars

 

Martian hot springs episode!!

[tkdguy]

Re: Glassy Mars

 

Mars wants our women!

[Zeropoint]

Re: Glassy Mars

 

That's okay, I want me some hawt Martian women!

[Captain Obvious]

Re: Glassy Mars

 

I assume you're talking about the red egg-laying Dejah Thoris types, and not the weird green long-headed Martian Manhunter type or the exposed-brain Mars Attacks type...

[Bygoneyrs]

Re: Glassy Mars

 

When is the manned landings on Mars planned for 2012-2015? Or did they push it back

to 2020?

 

Penn

[McCoy]

Re: Glassy Mars

 

When is the manned landings on Mars planned for 2012-2015? Or did they push it back

to 2020?

 

Penn

I believe the Russians claim to have an active program. NASA's Design Reference Mission (DRM) could get humans to Mars within ten to twelve years from the time we get serious about doing it.

 

We have the technology. What we need now is the ability to select a crew of six that can share what amounts to an efficency apartment they can't leave for two and a half years without getting homocidal.

 

I believe NASA's current plan is a return to the Moon by 2020, and Mars "sometime" thereafter.

[Bygoneyrs]

Re: Glassy Mars

 

Well either the engines tech needs to greatly improve, or they need to build

and design a ship large enough to be able to support a staff/crew with

enough entertainment to keep folks happy. I guess they would have to

bring along a good RPG gaming system like Hero's System to pass the time.

 

Penn

[Thia Halmades]

Re: Glassy Mars

 

I believe the Russians claim to have an active program. NASA's Design Reference Mission (DRM) could get humans to Mars within ten to twelve years from the time we get serious about doing it.

 

We have the technology. What we need now is the ability to select a crew of six that can share what amounts to an efficency apartment they can't leave for two and a half years without getting homocidal.

 

I believe NASA's current plan is a return to the Moon by 2020, and Mars "sometime" thereafter.

 

C'mon McCoy. College kids with large campuses and individual rooms can't manage this. I doubt six people and one bathroom (and heaven help you if someone has some sort of genetic problem that blows up half way between here and there) would actually work on any level. I'd go insane.

 

Too few people? *snap*

Too MANY people and no space? *pop*

 

The difference is subtle, but it's there.

[Bygoneyrs]

Re: Glassy Mars

 

Actually what they need is a slightly larger designed ship that can be reused for

other trips to Mars as well. Maybe a central rotating hub that simulates gravity

and where they can use the central corridor as a place to jog within the rotating

hub to help keep them in shape. Maybe some rooms off of this central corridor on

either side set up for labs and other uses and barrecks as well. The US Airforce

has found having two service members per room works out nicely, and provides

just enough privacy too. I would also hope that they send them with a whole

bunch of games and etc, to help them pass the time.

 

Penn

[Captain Obvious]

Re: Glassy Mars

 

I'm sure I've posted this before, but I think Buzz Aldrin's plans are the most workable scenario in the foreseeable future.

[Bygoneyrs]

Re: Glassy Mars

 

Well I just read the article and I just wonder when all this might happen, I would

pay to donate 1% of my yearly salery to the space program to fund it! I think it

is a program that is well worth the costs and funding!

 

Penn

[Zeropoint]

Re: Glassy Mars

 

Fund the Mars mission! Sample and return! Hawt Martian babes for all!

[azato]

Re: Glassy Mars

 

So that means there can't be more than one woman crew member. OOPS! Did I say that?

 

We have the technology. What we need now is the ability to select a crew of six that can share what amounts to an efficency apartment they can't leave for two and a half years without getting homocidal.

[McCoy]

Re: Glassy Mars

 

Well either the engines tech needs to greatly improve, or they need to build

and design a ship large enough to be able to support a staff/crew with

enough entertainment to keep folks happy. I guess they would have to

bring along a good RPG gaming system like Hero's System to pass the time.

 

Penn

 

Actually what they need is a slightly larger designed ship that can be reused for

other trips to Mars as well. Maybe a central rotating hub that simulates gravity

and where they can use the central corridor as a place to jog within the rotating

hub to help keep them in shape. Maybe some rooms off of this central corridor on

either side set up for labs and other uses and barrecks as well. The US Airforce

has found having two service members per room works out nicely, and provides

just enough privacy too. I would also hope that they send them with a whole

bunch of games and etc, to help them pass the time.

 

Penn

The difference is the DRM can be done with no materials or engineering breaktrhoughs. You, and Aldrin, are talking about building something larger than the ISS then accelerating it toward Mars.

 

Don't think a shared room is going to be an option. Think the crew is going to need a private space, someplace thay can shut the door and not see, hear, or smell anyone else. Unfortunately I suspect these will be like a Japanese Capsule Hotel, coffin-sized rooms, but a space within the ship they can be alone, select the movie or music they want without consulting anyone, turn the lights on or off as they chose, ect.

 

PbP RPG's may be a very good idea. Real time communications will suffer from longer and longer speed of light lag as they get farther away from Earth. Fortunately with modern technology a good library of movies, music, and e-books takes very little mass, and new ones can be uploaded throughout the mission.

[Vestnik]

Re: Glassy Mars

 

I believe the Russians claim to have an active program. NASA's Design Reference Mission (DRM) could get humans to Mars within ten to twelve years from the time we get serious about doing it.

 

We have the technology. What we need now is the ability to select a crew of six that can share what amounts to an efficency apartment they can't leave for two and a half years without getting homocidal.

 

Indeed:

 

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,505617,00.html

 

September 14, 2007

 

THE LONELINESS OF THE LONG DISTANCE COSMONAUT

 

Russia Prepares for Mars Mission with 'Big Brother'

Experiment

 

How would humans react to a long and difficult trip to

Mars? To research the effects of extended isolation,

and prepare for a possible mission, Russian scientists

will put six volunteers in a closed environment in

Moscow for 520 days -- and then sit back and watch.

 

Sergey Ryazanski, whose grandfather helped build an

early Soviet rocket, will be a test crew member for a

simulated trip to Mars.

 

One ex-convict from Western Europe has applied to be

locked up again, in Russia: He said he thought the

space research mission in far-away Moscow was just the

thing for him, since he's used to cramped spaces and

isolation from his time in jail.

 

He and others have written to the European Space

Agency (ESA), which together with Moscow's Institute

for Biomedical Problems (IBMP) wants volunteers for a

new experiment testing mankind's limits for an

eventual mission to Mars. Within the next three

decades, Russia wants to be the first to send humans

to the red planet.

 

In order to prepare for the arduous journey, four

Russians and two people selected by ESA will

participate in experiments to simulate long-distance

space travel: They will be locked up in a model

spacecraft for 520 days as human guinea pigs. No

outside air and no daylight will penetrate the

container's aluminum walls. In effect, it will be like

the reality TV show Big Brother, only for science

instead of cheap entertainment.

 

Some 5,000 men and women from 45 countries have

applied so far. "I see good chances especially for

eastern Germans, since the participants have to speak

fluent Russian as well as English," says ESA

researcher Marc Heppener. The application deadline

ends this month and finalists for the experiment

starting in 2008 will be determined in December.

 

Sergey Ryazanski has already passed all the necessary

medical and psychological tests. The athletic,

blue-eyed, 32-year-old Russian is testing one of the

wooden cots in the mock spacecraft's sleeping module.

His grandfather helped build one of the very first

Soviet rockets and two years ago he managed to

graduate from Russia's cosmonaut training program. A

romantic attraction to outer space simply runs in the

family blood. "My wife was the only one who couldn't

understand that," Sergey sighs. She divorced him.

 

>From his training, Ryazanski knows how extreme

conditions can affect a person's psychological

well-being. "In total isolation with five people,

you're burdened by five times as many problems, and so

are the others," he says. It's exactly that sort of

group dynamic that the IBMP wants to examine.

 

Eighteen cameras will record every move, every

discussion and every argument of the earthbound

spacecraft's occupants. Psychologists hope to pick

candidates that will ensure the group works together

as well as possible. A university degree in medicine,

biology or engineering is a requirement.

 

Once the 20-centimeter thick airtight hatch has

closed, the six would-be cosmonauts will have to rely

on each other. They will have to repair things like

defective filters on their own. That's because the

crew of a mission to Mars -- unlike the International

Space Station (ISS) crew, in orbit 350 kilometers

above the Earth -- would get little help from ground

control. The further away they travel, the greater the

delay in communication will be. At its farthest point

in orbit around the sun, Mars is some 400 million

kilometers away from the Earth. Any SOS call from the

spaceship would take 20 minutes to reach mission

control and their response would take another 20

minutes on the way back.

 

Fresh Vegetables, but Reprocessed Urine

 

Food is another major topic. Each gram of prepackaged

food will be closely calculated and stored in the Mars

enclosure. If someone wants to drink two cups of

coffee in a day, someone else will have to go without.

They will also grow their own vegetables in real soil

in a greenhouse. Those vegetables, along with freshly

baked bread, will be the only non-packaged food

onboard.

 

The pretend cosmonauts will receive €120 per day for

spending a year and a half breathing chemically

treated "spaceship air," drinking reprocessed urine,

and eating freeze-dried food. Workers for the IBMP are

still hammering and bolting the four windowless

modules together, which will be connected by airlocks.

But the wood-paneled sleeping cabins are already done,

and they've installed the ventilation system.

 

The project will simulate the first manned mission to

Mars under realistic conditions. The trip to Earth's

red neighbor takes 250 days. Thirty days will be spent

on approach, landing and a brief stay on the sandy

rocky surface. Only at this point will participants be

allowed to leave their enclosure -- in a complete

spacesuit. After that, they will begin the "trip

home," which will take another 240 days.

 

The psychological selection process is extremely

important, stresses IBMP director Anatoly Grigoryev.

He knows what he's talking about: Eight years ago, the

Russians attempted a much shorter experiment

simulating six months in space.

 

It wasn't pretty. A Japanese participant dropped out

because he couldn't stand the drama. At an

alcohol-fueled New Year's celebration, a Russian

punched his colleague and gave him a bloody nose. The

team leader also tried to kiss a female participant

from Canada. "After that I only went to bed with a

knife," she said later.

[Susano]

Re: Glassy Mars

 

When is the manned landings on Mars planned for 2012-2015? Or did they push it back

to 2020?

 

Penn

 

2030, IIRC.

[Bygoneyrs]

Re: Glassy Mars

 

Well all I can hope fore in my lifetime, is that I live long enough (I'm currently 43) to

see mankind return to the moon and mankind walk on Mars. If that all happens in lets

say the next 30 yrs, I will be 73 by then. They say your lifespan is a average of your

mother's and father's. Mom was 88 and dad was 76 when they both passed away, so

I can only hope I make it to at least 76 yrs old!

 

Penn

[Lawnmower Boy]

Re: Glassy Mars

 

I'm 43, too, and perhaps because I have longer to wait than Bygoneyrs (my parents haven't died yet, so logically I'm going to live forever!), I just ask that no-one rushes into this. I do not want to hear about the first voyagers to Mars dying miserably halfway there.

[Bygoneyrs]

Re: Glassy Mars

 

I too can only hope that I am able to influence my own children whom are 8 and 13,

and interested in math/science and space, to maybe guide them toward careers in

the direction of the space program. It would be a dream if they could be apart of the

space program and etc, but I will be happy with what ever they do regardless.

 

Yes I hope too, that the flights to Mars are a total success!

 

Penn

[Susano]

Re: Glassy Mars

 

I too can only hope that I am able to influence my own children whom are 8 and 13,

and interested in math/science and space, to maybe guide them toward careers in

the direction of the space program. It would be a dream if they could be apart of the

space program and etc, but I will be happy with what ever they do regardless.

 

Yes I hope too, that the flights to Mars are a total success!

 

Penn

 

If you want anything NASA related, let me know and I'll see what I can do.

[lemming]

Re: Glassy Mars

 

Oooo. The NASA Brainwashing kit would be nifty!

[Bygoneyrs]

Re: Glassy Mars

 

I tell ya...my thoughts on NASA and the space program are slightly different

that my older sons views. I would advised my sons to do well in school, get

involved in all sorts of activities and get into either the Naval or Air Force

Academy. Then study to become some engineer and become a pilot. Then

try for the Astronaught program. Something tells me that might be the way

for my younger son, but my older son ( the 13 yr old that plays Hero's) is

more of a true scientist egg. His approach will be the scholar one I can

see now. I will support what ever they want to do, but am glad that they

at least share my interest in space and what is "Out There". Space is

mankind's future and I believe we will be out there one day!

 

Penn:dyn

[Zeropoint]

Re: Glassy Mars

 

Alas, I must live with the knowledge that I will never contribute to nor participate in the exploration of space. Or anything else significant, for that matter.

[Vestnik]

Re: Glassy Mars

 

Man, Zeropoint. Man.